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HomeCommentaryBRIEF: Lawsuit filed against Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest

BRIEF: Lawsuit filed against Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest

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*Editor's Note: Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest serves Alaska, Idaho, and western Washington and is not the Spokane affiliate.

A lawsuit made public today alleges Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest filed at least 25,000 false claims with The Health Resources and Services Administration for reimbursements in excess of the amount allowed for oral contraceptive pills and at least another 25,000 for reimbursements in excess of the amount allowed for emergency contraceptive, or Plan B, pills under the federal government’s 340B drug reimbursement program.

Its total damages could be as much as $377,134,130, according to the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Planned Parenthood of the Great Northwest serves Alaska, Idaho, and western Washington and is not the Spokane affiliate.

ADF's mission is to, “… keep the door open for the spread of the Gospel by transforming the legal system and advocating for religious liberty, the sanctity of life, and marriage and family,” according to its website.

According to ADF attorneys, who originally filed the lawsuit in 2011, Planned Parenthood submitted, “repeated false, fraudulent, and/or ineligible claims for reimbursement” to the state of Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Jonathan Bloedow, a Washington resident who discovered the alleged frauds through state open records requests.

In a statement Senior Counsel Michael J. Norton, a former U.S. attorney, said, “Compliance with the law should not be sacrificed for the sake of Planned Parenthood’s bottom line. They have cheated the American taxpayer for too long. It’s time the abortion giant is held accountable.”

The case is currently pending.

 

Tracy Simmons
Tracy Simmons
Tracy Simmons is an award-winning journalist specializing in religion reporting and digital entrepreneurship. In her approximate 20 years on the religion beat, Simmons has tucked a notepad in her pocket and found some of her favorite stories aboard cargo ships in New Jersey, on a police chase in Albuquerque, in dusty Texas church bell towers, on the streets of New York and in tent cities in Haiti. Simmons has worked as a multimedia journalist for newspapers across New Mexico, Texas, Connecticut and Washington. She is the executive director of FāVS.News, a digital journalism start-up covering religion news and commentary in Spokane, Washington. She also writes for The Spokesman-Review and national publications. She is a Scholarly Associate Professor of Journalism at Washington State University.

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Eric Blauer
Eric Blauer
12 years ago

ugh.

Marie
Marie
12 years ago

This is excellent news. Anyone who breaks the law must be held accountable, or we may as well have a lawless society with increased violence, plundering, and chaos.

And, to defraud taxpayers is extremely shameful, clearly a representation (one among many) of just how shameful the Planned Parenthood organization really is. They want to appear so wonderful and helpful to society, but yet they do nothing to teach young men and young women of abstinence, the dangers of sex (sexual diseases, etc), and the impact it can have (negatively) not just on them, but on society – the toll it takes.

It is already entirely un-Constitutional that any taxpayer who feels abortion is against their religion should have to pay for others to murder/abort babies/life. It is highly unbelieveable to me that it has not been stopped and millions have been aborted on the hardworking dime of millions who do not agree with it religiously. I even have a friend who is pro-choice and atheist who thinks planned parenthood receiving federal tax money to abort babies is 100% un-Constitutional! Why? Because she is intelligent and understands law, which is being broken on many fronts, by this organization.

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